My own impressions of Armenia, which for a long time were formed only by other people's accounts, turned out to be somewhat different. The country indeed cannot boast of a stable financial situation for its people: the average salary is $79, the subsistence minimum is $60, and pensions generally do not even reach half of that amount.
On the other hand, a fairly large number of cars ply the streets of Yerevan, and the local population looks quite decent. Young people, in particular, try to keep up with Western fashion trends. In short, everything is like everywhere else. In our country, too, many complain that there is no money, but nevertheless they explain the rise in real estate prices by increased demand.
In general, the phrase 'poor Armenian' was nonsense in the Soviet Union. It was hard to imagine natives of this republic in a difficult financial situation. From their point of view, perhaps there was a crisis. They say life has cracked, and only half a bag of money remains. But by national standards, Armenians always stood out from the general background. It is clear that these were the best, most active representatives of their people, but after all, it is they who are the country's calling card.
Tourists - dear guests
In Yerevan and its surroundings, they know how to make money from tourists. Souvenir prices are higher than, say, in Slovak Bratislava (for example, an ordinary postcard with a view of Armenia costs a little over three hryvnias in our money). There is little surprising in this. The Slovak capital probably sees as many tourists in a month as the Armenian capital does in a year. So the Transcaucasians earn not by quantity, but by high prices.
And in mountain villages, local residents live solely on tourists. Indeed, the bright sights of Armenian history and culture are located in the mountains, away from prying eyes. On the way to them, I happened to meet quite colorful settlements. Some of them are located in areas unfavorable for life - ground shifts occur there. Because of this, roads quickly become unusable, and the walls of houses become covered with webs of cracks that increase by several centimeters each year. Some residents order the removal of soil, but such measures do not always help, so the villages are already half empty, but many residents do not want to move to the city. Even the compensation, which before the rise in apartment prices could have been used to acquire housing in Yerevan, does not entice them.
And indeed, living there is unsafe. Our bus drove past a house that deserves the prefix 'ex': it is falling apart literally before one's eyes. The walls are at a considerable angle to the ground, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And this angle decreases year after year. One should not forget that Armenia is in a seismically active zone. Earthquakes are frequent here. One of the most terrible occurred in the 80s - the Spitak earthquake. It claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.
It is hard to understand what exactly keeps Armenians in these places. Especially since there is no real soil in the mountains. And to try to harvest a crop, one must first do the hardest work of clearing all the stones from the plot. But there are not so many willing to do Sisyphean labor - they garden only in the areas most suitable for farming.
Mountain dwellers mainly graze livestock and tend orchards and vineyards. The fruits of the latter two activities are sold to tourists, mainly in the form of jam. For the equivalent of our 20 hryvnias, you can buy a liter jar of nut jam. It is the most expensive thing we came across. The varieties are like in the best supermarket. The rows of jars make your eyes dazzle, and when the seller finishes listing his wares and their prices, you realize you have already forgotten how much the first jar costs.
God's blessing
In the mountains, by the way, you can see part of the real Armenia. The one that has always attracted attention. The one that, because of its own attractiveness, suffered all sorts of sorrows and hardships. It is probably not easy to imagine a people of whom fewer live in their own country than abroad. In this regard, only Israel can stand alongside Armenia. But Armenians do not leave their native lands out of curiosity. And not at all for profit, although in a new place they manage not only to survive but also to hold a fairly serious position in society.
In the mountains, the air is like honey. You can drink it, swallow it, savor it. In the mountains there are amazing panoramas that stagger the imagination. In the mountains is the ancestral home of the Armenians. Various monasteries were usually located in the most remote mountain areas. Armenia was the first to officially recognize Christianity as the state religion (this happened in 301 AD). And it defended its views very desperately in this regard. Being on the border of worlds - Western and Eastern - is not easy. Armenians suffered greatly for this. One can recall the sad history of the Genocide, which from 1878 to 1922 took the lives of millions of Armenians. One can also recall the fact that Yerevan is the 12th capital of the Armenian state, and ponder why there were so many.
It was in monasteries that the state treasury was hidden in times of danger. And such moments were countless. Monasteries, whose churches were often simply carved inside the rock, became a refuge for those who for some reason could not defend themselves with weapons in their hands. Reaching such refuges is no easy task. By the way, often a monastery is the end of a mountain serpentine. There is no road beyond.
Armenians attribute the increased interest in the territory they inhabit to divine blessing. According to biblical legend, Noah's Ark found a piece of land during the Great Flood precisely in Armenia - on the peak of Mount Ararat, which is visible from virtually any part of Yerevan. Sacred Ararat is now a symbol of Armenia, Armenian culture, a source of national vitality. Everything best, most exceptional in Armenia bears the name "Ararat". A football team, the best restaurant in Yerevan, a cognac factory, even sons are often named Ararat.
As an additional argument in favor of their chosenness, Armenians cite the fact that they adopted Christianity earlier than other states. And in 1976 they had another reason for pride that can be added to the version of divine blessing. In the village of Banants (located in Azerbaijan, but Armenians live there), the oldest handwritten version of the Bible in Armenian was found. This copy is dated to the 7th century. It is strictly guarded and brought to parliament once every five years. Every president of Armenia takes an oath of loyalty to his people and their interests on this Bible, which is almost one and a half thousand years old.
Life in the capital
Modern Yerevan tries to keep pace with progress, although it lags considerably. For example, there is only one mobile operator in the country, which either cannot or does not want to improve customer service, expand the network, or improve signal reception quality. The lack of competition also affects the prices for services. The problem of getting through to Armenia is indeed urgent, and Armenians themselves joke that they wear phones on their belts to maintain their image - they rarely call.
Yerevan has a large number of cafes, restaurants, and shops. Prices are quite affordable. At least by our standards. But apparently also by local ones. Apparently, Armenians do not live on one salary alone. Indirect confirmation of this is the assurance of our guide that apartment prices in Yerevan have significantly increased in recent years and are already almost approaching Moscow prices. Naturally, not all, but only in central and elite districts.
When looking for currency exchange points, no problems arise. The hryvnia rate to the local dram in the second half of August was 1 to 92.9. It is simple for Ukrainians to calculate - subtract two zeros from the amount quoted and you get an almost exact picture of spending in your usual currency. True, exchange offices where one could easily convert Ukrainian banknotes to Armenian ones were not encountered. In Yerevan, like in Kyiv, only dollars, euros, and Russian rubles. Similarly, within 10 meters you can find two points where the quoted rates differ. Not very significantly, but still. The know-how of local exchange offices is the presence of a calculator on the counter so that the client does not bother with mental calculations or suspicions about the cashier's honesty.
Business card
The most demanded product in Armenia is cognac, which has become almost the calling card of the region. The wine from which cognac is made is grown right here, in the Ararat Valley. Recently, all ingredients for the production of this noble drink have been obtained in Armenia. Even the wood for barrels, which was previously imported from abroad.
The history of Armenian winemaking goes back to ancient times. Two and a half thousand years ago, Herodotus testified that excellent wines were exported from this region. They were of high quality, aged, and varied. And the vine has been cultivated here for about 3,000 years.
Cognac production in Armenia was founded in 1887 by merchant Nerses Tairyan. On the territory of the former Yerevan fortress, he built the first wine and vodka factory. Then its owner became the partnership "Shustov and Sons". The Shustovs sold cognac in many cities and also became pioneers of advertising campaigns. They hired young people who visited restaurants and other establishments and ordered only Shustov cognac. If there was none (and initially that was the case), they left in anger, thus forcing owners to search for the mysterious drink.
Gradually, Armenian cognac became an object of attention of the powers that be. In 1901, cognac "Otdelny" was served at the table of His Imperial Majesty. It is produced to this day. Not surprisingly, during the Soviet era the enterprise did not disappear, and the main plant occupied eight and a half hectares in the center of Yerevan. Cognac production became the most advanced sector of the Armenian economy (93% of products are exported to more than two dozen countries) and became a true art.
The cognac factory has its own attractions - the Charles Aznavour alley. He visited here in 2001 and received a barrel of cognac as a gift under No. 13. Nearby are barrels belonging to the presidents of Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Lyudmila and Vladimir Putin, and Boris Yeltsin. Owners and their heirs can take the cognac at any moment. However, no one has done this yet. The longer it is stored in the barrel, the higher its cost. The most expensive spirit has been aged here since 1902.
By the way, in Armenia one can often hear a story about how local cognac saved a person's life. In Soviet times, cognac bottled in Yerevan was available only to a select minority. It was hugely popular among statesmen. After Stalin offered Winston Churchill a glass of Armenian cognac at the Yalta Conference, the British prime minister became a fan of this drink. It is known that Churchill drank a bottle of 50° "Dvin" daily. One day the prime minister discovered that "Dvin" had lost its former taste. He expressed his dissatisfaction to Stalin. It turned out that the master Margar Sedrakyan, who was in charge of this variety of cognac, had been exiled to Siberia. He was brought back, reinstated in the party, and Churchill began again to receive his favorite "Dvin", and Sedrakyan was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labour.
Today Armenian cognac can be bought in almost any Yerevan shop. True, to be sure of the quality of the drink, it is still better to make a purchase in a branded store (one of them is on the street adjacent to Republic Square, the central square in Yerevan). The most popular product is "Ararat". A 0.5-liter bottle of the three-star drink costs around 40 hryvnias, while the five-star one is almost one and a half times more expensive. Moreover, for another 30-40 hryvnias you can get a bottle with a label on which your first and last name will be displayed. And how are you worse than Yeltsin, who has his own barrel of Armenian cognac?